


the things we did for love

by fishydwarrows



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Assisted Suicide, Cannibalism, M/M, Murder, Non-Canonical Character Death, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 00:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5070619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishydwarrows/pseuds/fishydwarrows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>I want people to tell their children terrifying stories about the things we did for love.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	the things we did for love

I.  _Bilbo_

    He trades the Arkenstone not for peace, but for _Thorin_. The jewel shines on the table, a bright, bitter reminder of his betrayal.

    When he speaks on the ramparts it is for peace and for the dwarf he loves to come back. _You are changed, Thorin._ Half-prayer, half-plea. He thinks there must be something of his Thorin left in that body, but the gold has him in his thrall. And when he is grabbed by the collar and hung above the abyss, he steels himself out of love.

    But Thorin drops him. And there is no love left, anymore.

* * *

 II. _Dís_

    She scourges battlefields for the dead and when she finds them she brings them home, another night’s supper slung over her shoulders. She carves up the bodies and roasts them over a fire red like a bloodstained dawn, bleeding that terrible light it only has in winter.

    For the first time in forever, her children go to bed with full bellies. She does not tell them that the meat they ate was their father.

* * *

 III. _Balin_

    He knows there is nothing in Khazad-dûm but death, but he swallows his heart and goes, not for himself, but for his people. The water is as deep as the endless halls in the mountains. The smell bodies are everywhere, but he presses on. He does not tell them of his doubts, of his fears of that nameless beast in the dark. They build, and build. It is still too quiet.

    On his deathbed, he does not think of his people, but his brother.

* * *

 IV. _Thranduil_

    They are fighting, and then there is the fervid fire of the eye, and she is _gone_. He searches for years. A hundred, a thousand, he cannot recall. Then, he finds her. Chained in Gundabad, her figure thin, her complexion sallow. Her eyes are hollowed with the horror of lifetimes. Her voice, once the sound of a tinkling stream, is hoarse. She catches his gaze with dark eyes.  _Kill me._

    He returns alone. He never utters her name again.

* * *

 V. _Tauriel_

    There are arrows through her chest and she coughs blood, but she has never felt more alive, in this moment when she’s dying. The orcs advance. She cups the runestone in her palm. Closes her eyes. Runs her fingers over the writing, one last time.

    _Meleth-nín_ , she whispers, and the club connects with the back of her head.

* * *

 VI. _Thorin_

    For love, he throws his one off the ramparts and listens to that final shriek, that look of heartbreak, the sound of bone cracking on the rocks below; for love, he leads his nephews to their deaths for vengeance; and for both these things he never forgives himself.

* * *

 VII. _Bifur_

    They were under the stars when it happened. The sky, dark, dark enough to hide the orcs. They came for the small ones first. He knew he had to stop them. So he ran and he ran and he fought.

    He survives, half-mad, rambling only one tongue.

* * *

VIII. _Óin_

    After the battles they bring him the ones beyond saving, the ones the other healers refuse to see. _You must do something. Please._ He nods. Takes the wounded. Gives them vials of nightshade, and they are dead by morning.

* * *

 IX.  _Dwalin_

    He finds his father, after the battle, before the gates of Khazad-dûm bleeding, bleeding, dying.  He can say nothing.

    His father passes him the knife. _D’akrag_ , Fundin whispers.

_D’akrag_ , Dwalin repeats, and he slashes his father’s throat.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

>  _meleth nín_ — Sindarin, _my love._  
>  _d'akrag_ — Khuzdul, _for honour_.
> 
> Khuzdul translation provided by Striving-artist.


End file.
